The development of the EDVAC computer of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely sophisticated devices, and computer systems may be found in many different settings. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware, such as semiconductors and circuit boards, and software, also known as computer programs.
Every day, computer users are faced with the daunting task of managing and retrieving information from scores of e-mail messages, thousands of files on their personal computers and servers, and billions of Web pages. Managing this myriad of information from a multitude of sources is a difficult and time consuming task.
With the interconnected nature of our work today, many of these information sources are connected to each other and to other references via links. A prime example of such a link is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URL provides the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. The first part of the address indicates what protocol to use, and the second part specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located. Thus, URLs imply an important relationship between a source document and a destination document.
Currently, the only way to manage these relationships is through search algorithms/products such as Google™ Desktop Search or Google™ Pagerank. However, such solutions have an important shortcoming in that they only help to identify files after inputting one or more keywords. When results are received from such tools, it remains difficult to track which documents contain which links (URLs). Additionally, it is a challenge to remember where each link (URL) was referenced and to find its related documents. Manually organizing and saving all of the links (URLs) in a relevant presentation form is currently nearly impossible.
There is a need for a better technique to help users dynamically manage historical data within and between documents bearing one or more links, and retain the relationships defined by the links. The technique needs to track the links not just from source documents to destination documents, but from destination documents back to the source documents, organize the links in a hierarchical manner based on the content/naming of the links, and display the link information to the user in a real-time and meaningful way.